Yale Offers 6 Free Online Open College Courses

Ever think of the days where you sat in an amazing college lecture that you just couldn’t get out of your head? I know I miss being in school. If you feel the same way, you’ll find that Yale Open Courses are a great learning tool. All the course lectures are available online, and you can download the materials right from the website if you choose to follow along like the students in the class. And don’t worry about not being able to fully dedicate yourself to taking a class, because you’re free to pick and choose certain videos at your leisure. Here’s a list of 10 Yale courses available online:

The American Novel Since 1945

Led by Dr. Amy Hungerford, this class traces development of the novel in the U.S. following 1945. Tracing the big names like Flannery O’Connor, Vladimir Nabokov, Toni Morrison, and Cormac McCarthy.

Of this particular class, I find her lectures on Lolita to be particularly illuminating. If you have a vested interest in getting a taste of the development of the American novel in the latter half of the twentieth century, then this class is for you.

Modern Poetry Yale Open Courses

Here’s another class I enjoyed a lot. It’s clear that Dr. Langdon Hammer feels an intimate connection to all of the poets he’s walking his students through.

Each lecture is dedicated to a different poet (some poets get a few days dedicated to them), which is an approach I really like because it feels as if you really get a sense of what their thematic strains were. You also get a real sense of how these poets were connected to and influencing one another. My favorites from this series are probably the lectures covering Yeats and Auden.

The American Revolution

With Hamilton being the hot ticket on Broadway, why not dive deeper into the historical context surrounding Lin Manuel’s massive hit? We all think we know the story behind signing of the Declaration of Independence, but I suspect that in viewing this course, we’ll learn what’s really going on behind “No Taxation Without Representation.”

Cervantes’ Don Quixote

If you haven’t read Don Quixote,it’s super dense with a ton of historical context surrounding Spain in the background. This is an upper level course, so the whole class discusses five chapters of the novel during each lecture. In this class we get to do a close reading of the novel while learning about Baroque Spain and painters like Diego Velázquez.

Listening To Music

Think you know how to listen to music? Well, think again. In this class, Henry Craig Wright and Lucy Moses walk us novices through the musical styles and patterns of Western Music. It has everything from Blues, Jazz, and Gregorian chant.

Environmental Politics and Law

With the environment being a big issue at stake in the upcoming presidential election, why not become more educated about the politics surrounding the environment? This class covers the laws surrounding nuclear testing, clean air, and clean water. It ends on mediating about renewable energy sources.

If you’re a perpetual student like me, or if you just want to dive into a topic you don’t know very much about, take a look at these classes or explore the other classes that Yale Open Courses has to offer! Don’t stop learning! Follow the link to Yale’s site.

Katie Sterr grew up on the mean streets of Joliet, IL—a southwest suburb of Chicago, known mostly for its prison (you may remember Joliet Jake from Blue’s Brothers). She just recently graduated with her MA in English Literature from Marquette University, where she taught writing for two years, and is now on a quest (some...